The Eclectic review. vol. 1-New [8th], Том 4,&nbsp;Част 1

moted, where the antidote remains unknown. Those who are acquainted with the warmth of Mi: O.'s attachment to the 'object of the British and Foreign Bible Society, will readily suppose that he could not suffer an avowed enemy of the Institution to be long in the field, without his appearing there also to oppose and discomfit him. In truth, we condole with him, on having had in Mr. T. an antagonist so little worthy of his prowess, for while the ability of Mr. O.'s performance would have secured him a triumph over a veteran, he has only the spoils of a stripling to bear away from the field. · The victory which he has obtained is, however, on account

of the cause, both important and distinguished. As our .readers are, we trust, well acquainted with the tenor of Mr.

Twining's Letter, it can only be necessary for us to place before them a specimen of the pointed passages of Mr. O.'s answer. He has been under the necessity, in order to feel - bis enemy, to do him an honour which he does not merit, that of giving to his objections a form and an arrangement which may render them palpable. He reduces them, there- fore, to three points, on each of which his assaults are com- pletely successful ;-viz, the imputations against the object of the Society; its East India Patronage ; and its actual proceedings.

The following passage furnishes an animated reply to Mr. T.'s attempt to alarm the fears' of the Company by his absurd predictions.

• Mr. Twining, Sir, has asserted much, predicted much, threatened much : but where are his Facts ? He has asserted that your “possessions in the East are in a situation of most imminent and unprecedented peril :" He has predicted that “ the arms of fifty millions of people will drive you" from Hindostan : He has threatened you with “ the extermination” of “your Eastern Sovereignty.” But where are his premises for such conclusions ? Where are his credentials for such vaticination ? Has the Bible Society excited any alarm in Hindostan? Who then has been alarmed-Has it given any offence? Who then has been offended ? Has it produced any remonstrance? From what quarter has that remonstrance come ?-What Rajah, or Sultan, what Brahmin or Priest, what Hindoo or Mahometan, has audibly complained that his Shaster or his Koran are in danger? We hear of none : then where, Sir, I repeat, are Mr. Twining's facts ? .

• Why, truly, Sir, they are at Buenos Ayres and Rosetta and Vellore? What then--were the expeditions to Egypt and South America undertaken for the propagation of Religion? Was this the motive which actuated our Cabinet and influenced our Commanders, and produced the alternations of joy and sorrow at Whitehall and at Lloyd's? Doubtless the Turks liked us the less for being Christians, and the Spaniards for being Protestants : but does any human being believe, that, going as we did with arms in our hands, we should have shared a better fate, had we

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professed to plant the Crescent on the shores of Egypt, or the Cross on those of South America ? And was the propagation of Christianity the object for altering the turban, clipping the beard, plucking out the earrings of the native troops at Vellore, and for forcibly effacing from their foreheads the sacred mark of Cast? Will the Military Commanders who enjoined this act of personal violence, say—will the agents who executed it, say–will the Company who know the secret of the whole transaction, say—will Mr. Twining himself, with all his bias towards assertion, saythat the disasters which drenched that place in blood, had any connection, directly or indirectly, with the Dissemination of the Christian Faith? If not-then what lessons does such an occurrence teach us? Many I conceive against Military violence, but none that I can discern against Missionary kindness. It seems then, Sir, that the cases which Mr. Twi. ning brings into comparison fail in two particulars in which parallel cases should at least agree : they have no resemblance to one another either in the means or the end. Really, Sir, a writer who confounds objects so distinct, and measures so dissimilar, may be pitied if he does it inno. cently, or blamed if he does it wilfully; but can in neither case expeet that you should adopt his errors into your System of Oriental Administration.' pp. 23—25.

The Address concludes thus :• I have not pointed out the comparative indifference, upon Mr. Twining's principles, between one religion and another, to the welfare of a people ; nor the impossibility, on those principles, of India being Chriscianized by any human means, so long as it shall remain under the domi, nion of the Company; nor the alternative to which Providence is by consequence reduced, of either giving up that country to everlasting superstition, or of working some miracle in order to accomplish its conversions --because I considered such inferences as too obvious to be overlooked, and too shocking to be endured. Finally, Sir, I have ventured to take for granted, considering who would be my judges, and in what an awful crisis I write, that the Bible is the only Book which contains the revealed will of God; that the sooner it supersedes the Shaster and the Koran, the sooner will the happiness of India be consummated ; and that the more we contribute, as a Nation and as Individuals, to promote this end by lawfuil means the greater blessings we shall draw down upon our commerce and our arms, upon ourselves and our posterity.' pp. 28, 29.

The Postscript, added to the 3rd Edition, contains Mr. O's very able review of a more formidable opponent to his - cause, in the “ Observations on the present State of the East

India Company," &c. evidently the production of a better informed and more practised writer. The condensed form in which it stands, renders it impossible for us to give a satisfactory account of it in the limits to which we are restricted ;

but we regret it the less, as there will be few that feel as they : ought on the momentous question at issue, who will not read Mr. Owen's whole performance.

Art. XI. Two Letters to the Proprietors of East India Stock, occasioned

by Mr. Twining's late Letter to the Chairman; and some anonymous . Observations on the Present State of India, urging the Suppression of

the Scriptures, and the Recal of the Missionaries from that Country.

12mo. pp. 20. Williams, Symonds, Black, 1807. W E have received this pamphlet barely in time to announce

" and recommend it to the public. The author is evidently a liberal and intelligent man; having had the advanttage of visiting the East Indies, he writes from personal knowledge, he produces couvincing arguments and facts, and furnishes a completely satisfactory, though hasty, short, and immethodical answer not only to Mr. Twining, but to that other adversary * of Christianity, whose sopbistry and misrepresentation we have not room at present to expose. We shall beg the attention of our readers to two very striking, unquestionable, and decisive statements :-the first relates to “ the numerous congregations of Roman Catholics which in a manner cover the margin of the sea on the West Coast of India.”

These people are sober, quiet, and peaceable ; and enjoy their religion, while more than two hundred Catholic priests, subject to the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa, are employed as Missionaries, and have been so for more than two hundred years,' among the most bigotted idolaters of India, without exciting the shadow of rebellion, or the least appearance of discontent with the Company's Government; and this amidst all the storms and convulsions that have agitated our lodian Empire. p.5.

The following fact should be generally known, as we deem it singly sufficient to overthrow all the charges of Messrs. 'Twining and Co. against the Protestaut Missionaries in India, and to prove that their arrogant and contemptuous assertions to the discredit of these exemplary Christians, are not less false in fact, than malicious in meaning t.

• In the month of July last, a Report was made to the Right Hon, LORD W.C. BENTINCK, Governor in Council at Madras, by the Rev. Dr. Kerr, Senior Chaplain at that Presidency, ON THE STATE OF RELIGION IN INDIA ; the whole of which is well worthy the perusal of the friends of Christianity in this country, but which, for the want of room, I shall confine to the following extract, as bearing more immediately on the point at issue':

“'“Various reports have been industriously circulated by EVIL MINDÊ V) PERSONS, hostile to Religion and its interests, that the natives would be alarmed, were Missionaries allowed to come out to India ; but I feel myself authorized, by a near acquaintance with many of the PROTESTANT MisSIONARIES now in India, and a perfect knowledge of the respect which is

* The author of « Observations on the Present State of the East India Company."

entertained for them by all descriptions of the natives, to repeat what I have formerly stated to, Government, that theSE MEN are, and always have been, more beloved by the natives than any other class of Europeans ; and it is to be accounted for, on the most rational grounds ; i. e. they learn their language intimately; they associate with them in a peaceable humble manner, and do them every act of kindness in their power, while at the same time the example of their christian lives produces the very highest respect amongst heathens, unaccustomed to behold such excellence amongst each other. The lives of such men in India have always been a blessing to the country, and I heartily wish that all such characters may be encouraged to come amongst us.

MADRAS, Yii (Signed) " R. H. KERR, July 23d, 1307. }

Senior Chaplain of Fort St. George.”

Art. XII. Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture. By Thomas

Kelly, 12mo. pp. 186. Price 23. bds. Figgis, Dublin ; Williams and

Smith. 1807. AT a time when the moral condition of Ireland excites the sympathy ^ of so many benevolent persons among us, a volume of truly evangelical Hymns iinported from Dublin is a novelty of too pleasing a character to be slighted or overlooked. It may be considered as a symptom perhaps, and certainly as a promising instrument, of the growing prevalence of genuine religion in that unfortunate country. With pleasure we add, that its need of our candour is not proportionate to the claims upon it which might be fairly urged ; and that the pious reader will not find it necessary to his satisfaction in perusing these compositions, to reflect on the circumstances of their origin, or to advert to the prospect of their utility. That they class with the best specimens of devotional poetry in our language, it would be equally unjust to expect, and injudicious to pretend : but they may fairly be considered as exceeding the average modern standard of poetical merit in this difficult species of writing.

It was felt by the excellent Dr. Watts, and it has been observed by many of his admirers and successors, that a very volatile fancy is often a dangerous intruder into religious meditations, and into the exercises of social worship. We do not therefore much regret Mr. Kelly's deficiency in this particular qualification of the poet ; but willingly accept a gentle, tender, and touching thought, instead of a grand conception, or a brilliant image. The affectionate and pensive tone of his poems, which is indeed their principal charm, indicates a mind very amiably constituted, and happily refined by the influence of cordial piety. They will. not be properly felt and appreciated except by persons who to a considerable degree resemble the author in natural dispositions, or acquired habits of feeling ; . to them, however, they cannot fail to be more or less acceptable ; they often appeal forcibly. to the heart ; they speak its genuine and simple language, and might justly lay claim to the title of Cardiphonia. Many of them in faet remind us very strongly of the productions of the late venerable Mr. Newton ; with the same plainness and familiarity of expression they have the same pathos and unction of sertiment.

To give the reader a-favourable, rather than a fair idea of Mr. K.'s abilities, we should wish to transcribe several detached extracts from different parts of the book; as there are many particular verses superior

VOL. IV.

in quality to any entire poem. The following hymn, however, will úgdoubtedly gratify the sincere and devout Christian, who only is qualified to sit in judgement on it.

HYMN 5. - 6 Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” Isaiah liji. 4,

«Stricken, smitten, and afficted,"

See him dying on the tree ! 'Tis the Christ by man rejected,

Yes, my soul, 'tis he! 'tis he! 'Tis the long expected prophet,

David's son yet David's Lords Proofs I see sufficient of it,

'Tis a true and faithful word. «2. Tell me, ye who hear him groaning,

Was there ever grief like his ? Friends through fear his cause disowning,

Foes insulting his distress. Many hands were rais’d to wound him,

None would interpose to save; But the awful stroke that found him,

Was the stroke that justice gave. • 3, Ye who think of sin but lightly,

Nor suppose the evil great ; Here may view its nature rightly,

And its guilt may estimate, Mark the sacrifice appointed !

See Who bears the awful load! Tis the word, the Lord's anointedy

Son of man, and Son of God, * 4. Sinners, who would have salvationz

And are stript of every boast; Find in this a firm foundation :

Christ the Saviour of the lost.

Lamb of God for sinners wounded ! L. Popis Sacrifice to cancel guilt!

None shall ever be confounded

Who on him their hopes have built. There is a considerable number of hymns fully equal, if not superior to this, and there are poetical thoughts and stanzas occasionally interspersed, which Cowper might willingly have owned. There are, on the other hand, many prosaic lines, some inelegant and aukward expressions, some improprieties in the use of will and shall, and frequent blemishes in respect of rhyme But on the whole the performance is entitled to our warm commendation ; it is honourable to the author's character, and in many instances it will amply reward that curiosity, among religious people in England, which it is likely to excite. Many of the Hymns may be advantageously introduced into new “ Collections."